The Cape of Good Hope, located at the southern tip of the African continent, was once known as "the end of the world", but today, the "devil winds and waves" that ravage the world's most famous cape are causing the global shipping market to despair. The global shipping market is in despair.

According to a number of logistics companies and analysts in the commodities market, severe storm conditions off the coast of South Africa have led to disruptions to vessel traffic in the relevant waters. The rough seas there have exacerbated delays in the global supply chain. In the past few months, many ships to avoid the Houthi attack, has been diverted from the Red Sea waters around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, and now they have escaped the "man-made disasters", but still seems to be unable to avoid the "natural disasters".

Denmark-based Scan Global Logistics, one of the world's leading freight forwarders, warned its customers on Wednesday that extreme weather conditions near the Cape of Good Hope are forcing consolidators to seek shelter from huge waves of more than 33 feet (about 10 meters) high, which have been whipped up by high winds.
Shipping researchers at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) said in a report that no container ships have passed the Cape of Good Hope since Monday. The data analytics provider relies on daily transit data from vessels and ship location data to get a comprehensive view of shipping traffic.
Fabrice Maille, head of global shipping and agriculture at LSEG, said in the report, "Container vessels have come to a complete standstill sailing east and west of the Cape of Good Hope. There has been no significant change in the traffic situation in the Red Sea yet, but several container ships have already turned around and are waiting off the coast of Durban, South Africa."

The Cape of Good Hope was first dubbed the "Cape of Storms" by Western explorers because of its stormy conditions and rough seas. According to the LSEG's meteorological team, a strong cyclone passed through the region on Sunday, possibly triggering huge waves due to well below normal temperatures.
The team also said that another cyclone could affect South Africa later this week, which could mean that extremely rough sea conditions could continue for several more days.
For his part, Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen posted on the X platform that there are now around 600 container ships circumnavigating Africa that could be affected by the extreme weather.
Recently, Maersk also issued an "extreme weather warning", saying that in the next few days, the South African coastline will experience strong winds, high waves and heavy rain. This will affect ship navigation and operations, and vessels are expected to seek shelter/change course to avoid the affected areas, with delays expected over the next few days.

Since the end of November last year, the detour through Africa has resulted in an increase of 10 days or more in the time it takes for a large number of ships to make the Euro-Asian voyage, which has disrupted the schedules of many ships and caused serious container hold-ups in many locations. As shipping volumes increase, several ports in Asia and Europe are experiencing congestion, with ships forced to queue at sea for days waiting for berths.

The South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) also recently said on the X platform that the bulk carrier MV Ultra Galaxy was abandoned in waters northwest of Cape Town on Monday and its 18 Filipino crew members were rescued from a lifeboat by a fishing vessel. According to vessel tracking data compiled by the media, the vessel left the port of Walvis Bay in Namibia on or about July 4, bound for Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

It is worth mentioning that the current global phenomenon of shipping market disruption due to bad weather is not the only one in the Cape of Good Hope waters - after Hurricane Beryl made landfall on Monday, ports in the U.S. state of Texas are still closed.
We would like to remind that the recent bad weather, coupled with the European countries such as Italy, Germany, France and other ports have broken out in strike action, or will lead to delays in the ship schedule, the lack of capacity more serious situation. Please pay attention to the latest situation for European cargo owners and forwarders. Forward to know~

Article source: a synthesis of foreign media gcaptain, financial news agency, VTech.com, etc.